I think you answered your own question. They knew they couldn’t push Paul over the finish line in the primaries but they could help McCain, and did.
Now if Paul runs they will make a HUGE deal of it and hope he plays spoiler in a few key states.
Dunno about that. Ron Paul’s most interesting stories were in 2007. The 2 one day internet fundraising records were barely covered. The biggest rally by a Republican candidate of that cycle to that point (5,000 or so in Philly) was barely covered.
Honestly, the MSM really, really does not like Ron Paul.
The MSM really, really does not want Ron Paul on TV talking about abolishing the Federal Reserve.
If they wanted to damage McCain without truly helping Ron Paul, they would have done so after McCain wrapped up the nomination.
If they wanted to help Ron Paul, they could have done so in 2007.
When Ron Paul had more cash on hand than McCain in 2007, they could have mentioned that. Instead, they simply repeated over and over that he was crazy and couldn’t win.
Yes, it is true that the media prefers Obama to McCain. I would argue that it is even more true that the media does not want people thinking that it’s a normal, acceptable, reasonable political belief to desire to shut down the Federal Reserve Bank, to shut down the IRS, to get rid of the income tax, to really and truly shrink the size of the Federal Government.
There are those who think that Obama is the worst democrat in history because he promises to bring us marxist socialism extremely quickly. Most here (maybe everyone here) understand that Obama is definitely trying to bring us more socialism more quickly.
However, there are some here that think that the difference between Obama and McCain is that McCain just wants to go half as fast.
The media wants to go as fast as Obama, but wouldn’t be too upset if we went as slow as McCain, according to this theory.
Ron Paul wants to go in the opposite direction, as fast as possible. The media cannot have that.
Palin is the wild card here. Palin is the best political talent the Republicans have now and have had for quite some time (Reagan?).
However, she has not been “vetted”. By “vetted”, I mean, the media does not know where Palin stands on socialism, and other big questions. Is she a prettier version of Ron Paul?
The media doesn’t know. Or pretends not to know. Who does know? Does John McCain know?
Perhaps they do know. Palin said some pretty flattering things about Ron Paul a few months back (theres a video on mtv.com where she praises Paul and Romney). She is against Real ID.
I guess it boils down to how much of a threat they see Palin as. She certainly will be President if she gets to be VP.
The media is in panic mode regarding Palin. I think it’s more safe to say that the media would not hype Paul if it was a McCain/Ridge ticket or a McCain/Lieberman ticket.
The media would have to weigh the risks of a potential new Reagan, or a Republican version of the Kennedys (Track Palin in 2040) against the risk of a rise of a powerful new voting block that demands much much less governemnt.